Comics: Kurtzman's Comic Books

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, Kent Butterworth stopped by on his lunch break to watch Terry Bears cartoons featuring eye popping Jim Tyer animation. I realized that it's been a while since I posted any comic book scans from Kent's great collection of golden age funny animal comics. I'm righting that wrong right now with some great examples by Harvey Kurtzman. Enjoy! (Thanks Kent!)




















If you enjoyed this post, check out our first article on Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny Part One and Part Two. Also see... Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, Milt Stein's Supermouse (Coo Coo Comics No. 7) Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Jim Tyer's Comic Books, Harvey Eisenberg's Foxy Fagan and Boodi Rogers' Babe Comics.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.6.09
.

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Comics: George Lichty Grin And Bear It Orgy!

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Archive supporter Christopher Lopez saw our feature on George Lichty a month or two back and decided to donate a big stack of vintage Grin And Bear It dalies and Sunday pages. I grew up with George Lichty's cartoons in the funnies every day, and as a kid, I didn't give much thought to them. But seeing his work from a wide range of years is a revelation. At first glance, Lichty's drawings appear sloppy, with formulaic oafish characters with their jaws agape. But look closer... His compositional sense and skill at putting across a visual gag is remarkable. There's nothing sloppy about his use of perspective either. His lines seem to be alive!


Along with the batch of comics, Christopher included an article on Lichty from 1952. It mentions a feature in the Saturday Evening Post titled "Does Lichty Really Hate People" (does anyone out there have a copy of that article we could scan?) and offers some choice tidbits on Lichty's working habits and lifestyle...

He works best in a crowded, noisy newspaper office. His desk is heaped so high with old drawings, discarded captions, letters he has forgotten to mail, cigarette stubs and fan mail that ever fourth day the janitors are ordered to dig through the debris just to make sure that Lichty is still alive and breathing.

Lichty has a few happy passtimes... He likes to putter around the house. When in doubt he lays little brick walls that wind aimlessly around the Lichty garden. He also plays the bass drum, sometimes at home, but more often as a member of the Guckenheimer Sour Kraut Band, a unique musical institution that he says is perpetuating a dying art form. He is not certain what the art form is, but anyway, he admits it is dying.

Now if that isn't a great description of the life of a cartoonist, I don't know what is!

Lichty was one of the comic page's longest working artists. His style changed little over the years. Compare the examples below from the late thirties to the Sunday pages from the 50s. Lichty's distinctive free flowing lines were a staple of the funnies for over half a century. He may have drawn slouches, but I think you'll agree, as an artist, he was no slouch himself!



Here (thanks to Joseph Campana) is the entry on Lichty from Martin Sheridan's Comics And Their Creators...





1939 DAILY STRIPS






1937 SUNDAY PAGES
















MID 1940s DAILY STRIPS











1950s SUNDAY PAGES











Thanks Christopher!

Check out the fascinating link between Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs and George Lichty in John K's All Kinds of Stuff.

If you enjoyed this post, see Virgil Partch's Here We Go Again, The Wild Wild Women and Man The Beast. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper; Jim Tyer Funny Animal Comics; and Milton Knight's Great Brown Pericord Motor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

6.3.09
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History: Terrytoons Studio Tour 1939

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Carlo Vinci and Connie Rasinski


Bill Weiss, Paul Terry, unknown, Larry Silverman, Carlo Vinci


For more on the Terry Studios' production process, see our earlier post, How Animated Cartoons Are Made
Recently, the family of the legendary animator, Carlo Vinci lent us two 8mm films to transfer for the archive. I'll post about the other one soon, but today I have a special treat for you... a color film outlining the animation production process from Terrytoons in 1939!

Here are frame grabs of most of the people appearing in this short. If you can identify anyone, please let us know in the comments below.


Animator Carlo Vinci



Story Man Larry Silverman


Story Man Tommy Morrison


Music Director Phil Scheib and Director Connie Rasinski






Makin' Em Move (Terry/1939)
(Quicktime 7 / 30.7 megs)

Here is the cartoon we see the artists working on in this film...






Harvest Time (Terry/1940)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Many thanks to the Vinci family for sharing this with us! And thanks to Jerry Beck too for arranging the video transfer of this delicate original film.

For more information on Carlo Vinci, see our Carlo Vinci Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. Also see... Carlo Vinci Notes / Terrytoons Model Sheets and The Temperamental Lion / John K on Flintstones Animators / Nat Falk's How To Draw Animated Cartoons Part One: History Of Animation / Part Two: The Cartoon Studios / Nat Falk's How To Draw Animated Cartoons Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Animated Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.28.09
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Comics: Chic Young's Blondie

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


Chic Young was one of the most successful newspaper cartoonists of his time. His first syndicated strip, Dumb Dora ran from 1924 to 1930. He retired the strip to create a "pretty girl" comic (ala Polly & her Pals) titled Blondie. It was an instant hit. Young penned Blondie until his death in 1973. The strip is still in print, under the byline of his son, Dean.


The other day, Archive supporter Joe Campana stopped by for a visit. He brought along a book for us to digitize... Comics And Their Creators was written by Martin Sheridan in 1942. It's a treasure trove of biographical information on great comic strip artists. Today, I am presenting the chapter on Chic Young, along with some rare original Sunday pages from the collection of Marc Crisafulli.

















Here are some of the very earliest Blondie Sunday pages...


July 19th, 1931


August 9th, 1931


August 16th, 1931


August 23rd, 1931


September 6th, 1931
Many thanks to Marc Crisafulli for sharing these rare original comics pages with us; and to Joe Campana of Animation Who And Where for lending us Comics And Their Creators.

For more info on Chic Young, see... Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part Two and People On Paper. Also see... Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three and Part Four; and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive
.

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Filmography: The Little King in On The Pan 1933

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.


The early sound cartoons that came out of New York have an indescribable quality that is sorely missing from animation today. The best way I can describe it is "fun factor". New York cartoons are gritty, unpredictable and outrageous with jazzy music forming the foundation for the action. There are no pretentions to be anything other than seven minutes of cartoony joy. This cartoon is no exception...






On The Pan (Van Beuren/1933)
(Quicktime 7 / 15 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

This cartoon was given to the Archive by Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Animation. Steve has been collecting, restoring and releasing incredibly rare animation on DVD. The discs are packed with great cartoons you can't find anywhere else, and have supplemental material that you can easily spend hours browsing. I highly recommend them.

If you like this cartoon, see some of our previous postings... Fleischer's You're Driving Me Crazy 1931, I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles and Mariutch; Jim Tyer Comic Books and Tyer's Barnyard Actor.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

5.20.09
.

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Illustration: Tenggren's D'Aulnoy and Good Dog Book

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


Just in case you aren't convinced yet that Gustaf Tenggren is one of the most amazing children's book illustrators of all time, here are two more persuasive arguments. These two books were published in 1923 and 1924, a very busy period for Tenggren. He had recently relocated to New York City, and he illustrated no less than eight books in a very short period of time. Make sure to click through the links to our other Tenggren posts at the bottom of this article to see more of his beautiful work.













THE GOOD DOG BOOK






Lines and Colors posted a nice feature on Tenggren this week.

For more incredible illustration by Gustaf Tenggren, see Tenggren's Grimms Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Heidi, Wonderbook and Juan & Juanita, and Small Fry and the Winged Horse.

See also... Einar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1929 and 1934, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll 1917, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

5.12.09
.

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Comics: Dudley Fisher's Right Around Home

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.


You might remember an earlier post I did on the "Bird's Eye View" comics from Boy's Life magazine by Harrison Cady. (If you haven't seen it, by all means, check it out!) Here is a similar format comic, courtesy of our friends at Digital Funnies... "Right Around Home".

Dudley Fisher was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1890. He studied to be an architect, but dropped out to take a job as a layout artist at the Columbus Dispatch. After returning from WWI, Fisher created a comic strip called "Jolly Jingles". Year after year, he cranked out rhyming verse until he couldn't stand it any more. In December of 1937 he decided to take a break from jingles and draw what Christmas on his grandmother's farm would be like (if he had a grandmother and she lived on a farm!) He drew it as one big full page panel and readers immediately took to it and clamored for more. King Features picked up the strip and titled it "Right Around Home". These great Sunday pages date from early in the run- 1939.












When asked by a young artist what sorts of pens and paper to use to draw cartoons, Fisher recommended not worrying about things like that, saying "I feel certain that Michaelangelo could have done a masterpiece on meat wrapping paper with a toothbrush and shoe polish. It's all got to come out of the artist- not the ink bottle."

These fabulous scans of original Sunday pages were provided to the Archive by Jonathan Barli of Digital Funnies. Jonathan is hard at work on an important project- documenting and restoring early cartoons and comics in digital form. He offers a wide variety of fascinating material for sale on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM. Please take a moment to visit the Digital Funnies website, and let him know that the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive sent you.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.29.09
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Biography: Carlo Vinci Notes From Terry-Toons

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.


Last Friday, archive assistant Amir Avni, John Kricfalusi and I took a trip out to visit Carlo Vinci's family at the home of his wife, Margaret. Mrs. Vinci graciously welcomed us into her home for a tour of her collection of artwork belonging to her late husband. Carlo's animation desk, which he designed and built himself, still stands in his office just as he left it, with caricatures by co-workers hanging above it on the wall. Every room in the house has beautiful artwork filling the space. It was an awe inspiring experience to get a chance to see it all.


John K, Steve Worth and Margaret Vinci
Carlo Vinci was a remarkable artist. He received classical art training at the National Academy of Design in 1930. He joined Paul Terry's Terry-Toons soon after, and worked there for twenty years. He came West to join Joe Barbera at MGM, and ended up as the lead animator at H-B for twenty more years. But as I learned at my visit, those great achievements were only a small part of his story. In addition to cartooning, Vinci was an all-around fine artist, adept at oil painting, watercolor, illustration, stained glass and sculpture... in a variety of styles, from classical to baroque to art deco... with a wide range of subjects- still lifes, portraiture, landscapes and religious subjects. It was a mind blowing experience to discover the depth of talent behind a cartoonist we thought we already knew.


Carlo Vinci's son, Paul and grandson, John
with John K in front of Vinci's self-portrait
After we had viewed all the amazing artwork, Mrs. Vinci invited us to enjoy some home made Italian desserts with her family. Excited by everything we had seen, we had plenty of questions about Carlo and his wonderful career as an artist. We asked if she had met him before he started working for Terry-Toons or after, and she replied, "He was working for Mr. Terry when I met him. When we were courting, he lived in the Bronx, and I lived in Brooklyn. It was a long trip across town to meet for our date every Wednesday evening. Carlo would send me a little note with a cartoon every day in the mail when we couldn't be together. I've saved them all these years, but I don't suppose you would be interested in seeing them..."

Naturally, we were! Her son, Paul Vinci helped her to retrieve the hundreds of letters from a closet- all on Terry animation paper in envelopes with the distinctive Terry-Toons logo. Dating from 1938 to 1939, these charming little notes had a personal message, along with brilliant drawings depicting Terry characters. Paul commented that he himself hadn't seen the letters since he was very small; and even then, his mother only shared one or two with him. They had been bundled away carefully for over fifty years. Mrs. Vinci has kindly allowed us to share these drawings with you...

















We will be presenting more material by the great Carlo Vinci in the coming weeks. All of us at ASIFA-Hollywood appreciate Mrs. Vinci's generosity. Paul and John Vinci will be printing out this post and sharing it with her, so you can thank her yourself in the comments below.

For more information on this great animator, see our Carlo Vinci Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. Also see... Terrytoons Model Sheets and The Temperamental Lion / John K on Flintstones Animators / Ruff And Reddy And Pinky The Pint-Sized Pachyderm / Alex Toth Model Sheets / Nat Falk's How To Draw Animated Cartoons Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: How To Draw Animated Cartoons and Part Five: How To Animate

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.8.09
.

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Parody: More Whack Comics

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we present more parodies from Whack comics... But first take a look at the picture above. It's an an early advertisement for the Joe Kubert School. 3D comics and movies were all the rage then. Television was beginning to cut into ticket sales at theaters, and producers were looking for a technical advantage over TV to give them an edge. But the fad quickly fizzled out. Movie audiences and comic book readers were more interested in the quality of the movies and comics than the number of dimensions. Today, DVDs and digital media downloading are cutting into the traditional media markets. Some producers are beating the drum for 3D again. Let's hope they realize soon that people are more interested in quality entertainment than formats.

The following story by Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer trumpets their publication of the world's first 3D comic book, Three Dimension Comics in 1953. Strangely enough, the comic this was published in, Whack wasn't in 3D!








PARODY

In my last post on Whack comics, I left something unsaid, hoping someone would pick up on it in the comments. J.J. Hunsecker was the one who finally mentioned it...

I find it kind of ironic that you're using Whack as an example of parody, since it can also be said to be a ripoff of MAD.

It's important to understand exactly where the line lies between exploiting an existing concept and plagiarism. Whack doesn't plagiarise Mad magazine... it simply uses the same basic format- a parody comic book. It doesn't ripoff Mad magazine any more than Roy Rogers ripped off Gene Autry or Star Wars ripped off Star Trek. They are simply working in the same genre.

MIGHTY MOOSE
Here's an amusing parody of Paul Terry's Mighty Mouse. The Super Rodent himself even makes an appearance! This is a "second generation parody". Mighty Mouse himself was a parody of Superman.








FLUSH JORDAN
Flash Gordon was also a comic inspired by the success of another similar comic. Alex Raymond created the strip to compete with Dick Calkins' science fiction comic, Buck Rogers. Here, Flash gets "Whacked"... and Bing Crosby is dragged into the mess too!







Thanks to the Estate of Milton Caniff for allowing us to digitize this.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Parody: Whack Comics Part One and Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.3.09

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Design: UPA Done Right

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.


John Kricfalusi's blog, "All Kinds Of Stuff" continues to be the most information packed and eye opening animation resource on the internet. If you haven't visited it lately, you'll want to check out the series of posts John has been writing on the impact of UPA on animation. I guarantee that you've never heard these sorts of opinions anywhere else, and once you digest the concepts, you'll never look at a UPA cartoon the same again.

Wally Walrus vs. UPA Part One
Wally vs. UPA 2: Stylized Cartoonists Take Their Skills For Granted
Wally vs. UPA 3: Walt Craves Respect
Wally vs. UPA Sidebar: Flat Stylized Cartoons I Like
Wally vs. UPA 4: When Milquetoasts Rebel
Wally vs. UPA 5: UPA Bred Worse Imitations
Sidebar: Spumco Stylized Cartoons: 1990


Here is just a sample of what John has to say...

If you don't know cartoon history and you just grew up watching Cartoon Network, you might think that this flat stuff is something new and "hip". It's not. It's much older than UPA, and the more graphic styles in cartoons before UPA didn't come with the wimpy trappings. Because of our association with UPA's beginnings, we assume that when we do something in a graphic style, we have to also carry over all the other attributes that came with UPA's particular cartoon vision- the blandness, the wimpy world view, the snootiness.

People usually don't analyze or break apart the elements that make up something they like. If we like it we assume that every ingredient in it is equally good. Then when we develop our own styles, we copy the bad with the good. That's what we need ANALYSIS for!

Like many artists, I have tons of influences. There are lots of things that inspire me. I try to figure out why they do and I break them down into their separate ingredients. I then decide which ingredients are the ones that are useful and discard the others that might have just come along with it, but don't actually add anything. There are good things about UPA and Disney- Tex Avery combined them and added his own world view to them and made cartoons more entertaining than either style.

John's comments cut like a sword through the "design for design's sake" school of animation. He cites Tex Avery as the one cartoon director who was able to incorporate modern design sensibilities, while still maintaining the entertainment value and humor of classic cartoons. He's dead right. This post reminded me of my favorite series of commercials... which were directed by Avery at Cascade studios and animated by Rod Scribner.


Not only is the character design modern in the "UPA style" but the movement has been stylized in a complementary manner. Why don't the current "Flat" cartoons move like this?!



KoolAid Spots (Cascade/ca.1960)
(Quicktime 7 / 6.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

UPDATE: I was browsing through Cartoon Modern today, and I found a post that Amid did last Summer that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts about the importance of animation even in stylized cartoons...

The Importance of "Animation" in Animaton Design

One of the hardest things to get across when discussing animation design is that it's not just about character designers, layout artists and background painters. The animator is a critical member of the design team....

The primary reason, in my opinion, that so much of today's stylized animation rings hollow is because nobody ever follows through on the animation. Regardless of whether a show is animated traditionally overseas or if it's done in Flash, most contemporary TV series creators think their job is done once they've created a pretty model sheet and slapped on a bit of color styling. These few stills illustrate however that model sheets are often the least important aspect of stylized animation-- what the animator does with those designs is what truly counts.

Exactly! Great animators like Bill Littlejohn, Rod Scribner and Grim Natwick moved these kinds of designs in unique and stylized ways.

This post is causing quite a ruckus over at Michael Sporn's blog. Check out Michael's post titled Aaargh. In particular, read the comments. Here's a real doozy...

Not everything has to look or move gorgeously to be good or artful. That's one of the dumbest, scariest suggestions I've heard anyone make in animation circles.

Yow! Do people really think lousy animation is artistic?!

Cartoon Brew has jumped into... The Great UPA Debate. Will Finn (check out his great new blog, small room) writes...

I see Steve Worth's point about Kool-Aid ads and such, where perfectly admirable work is overlooked because it wasn't in the service of "Art witha a capital A". Animators who want to evaluate work on a technique level should be able to appreciate that wherever they find it and not just where the intelligentsia have enshrined it with a golden frame.

If you found this article to be interesting, see also... Early 50s UPA Model Sheets, Herb Klynn The Shrimp, Grim Natwick's Post UPA Commercials, Alvin Show: The Whistler Storyboard and Jules Engel's Color Keys.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

4.2.09
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Caricature: The Genius of Miguel Covarrubias

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


Miguel Covarrubias was one of the most famous artists of his day, but chances are you've never heard of him. Caricaturists know his work- Al Hirschfeld studied under Covarrubias and shared a studio with him in 1924. He spoke of Covarrubias' talent in the same breath as Daumier and Hogarth. Ethnologists and archaeologists know the name of Covarrubias as well. His analysis of pre-Columbian art and the culture of Bali led to books on the subject that have become classics. And his reputation as an anthropologist rivalled any of his peers in that field. Illustrator, caricaturist, anthropologist, author and educator... It's high time you knew about Covarrubias too!


At the age of nineteen, Miguel Covarrubias, already a renowned caricaturist in his home country of Mexico, emigrated to New York City. He was an instant sensation, and his illustrations began appearing in New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Fellow Mexican artist, Diego Rivera described his illustrations as "those caustic but implacably good-humored drawings which, fortunately for his personal safety, people have been misled into calling caricatures. In Covarrubias' art there is no vicious cruelty, it is all irony untainted with malice; a humor that is young and clean; a precise and well defined plasticity."

Most of the caricatures from Vanity Fair below depict unlikely pairs of public figures. Click on the links to the Wikipedia entries on these people and see why Covarrubias put them together.

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS CARICATURES


Jim Londos & Herbert Hoover
(Vanity Fair, August 1932)


Senator Smith W. Brookhart & Marlene Dietrich
(Vanity Fair, September 1932)


Al Capone & Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes
(Vanity Fair, October 1932)


Clark Gable & Edward, Prince of Wales
(Vanity Fair, November 1932)


Ex-King Alfonso & James J. Walker
(Vanity Fair, December 1932)


Mrs. Ella Boole & Miss Texas Guinan
(Vanity Fair, January 1933)


Arthur Brisbane & The Sphinx
(Vanity Fair, May 1933)


Emily Post
(Vanity Fair, December 1933)


Admiral Richard E. Byrd
(Vanity Fair, December 1934)


Sally Rand & Martha Graham
(Vanity Fair, December 1934)


Dr. Samuel Johnson & Alexander Woolcott
(Vanity Fair, March 1935)


Auguste Piccard & William Beebe
(Vanity Fair, April 1935)
Covarrubias was much more than just an illustrator and caricaturist though. His books on Bali and Mexico revealed a careful analytical mind with an eye for detail. The following article from an arts magazine from 1948 encompasses the latter part of Covarrubias' career...

MIGUEL COVARRUBIAS OF MEXICO CITY
By Henry C. Pitz (January 1948)






Many thanks to the ever-faithful supporter of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, Kent Butterworth for sharing this wonderful material from his own collection with us.

If you enjoyed this post, check out... Colliers Magazine Illustrations From the Mid-1930s and the Mid-1940s and also... John Held Jr.'s Flappers, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Parody: Whack Comics No. 2

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


A week or two ago, I was taking part in a discussion on the Cold Hard Flash blog about ripping off other artists' work. One of the people discussing the subject brought up the concept of parody, but seemed to have no idea what actually constituted parody. The dictionary defines parody like this...

par-o-dy [par-uh-dee] noun, plural -dies, verb, -died, -dy-ing.
1. a humorous or satirical imitation of a serious piece of literature or writing: his hilarious parody of Hamlet's soliloquy.

Parody is self-evident. The Supreme Court Justice, Potter Stewart said, "I find it difficult to define obscenity, but I know it when I see it." Parody is like that too. But if you're going to be a cartoonist, you have to be able to do more than just recognize it... you need to be able to control it and utilize it as a tool. If you succeed, you can create something that does much more than just make fun of another work- it can illuminate an otherwise unthought-of truth, making your parody a creative work that stands on its own. If you fail, you risk plagiarism.

pla-gia-rism [pley-juh-riz-uhm, -jee-uh-riz-] -noun
1. the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.

As a cartoonist, you have to know how to use parody properly. Parody is not an excuse for plagiarism. It's important to add your own caricature and exaggeration to comment on the work you're parodying. And your exaggeration has to make a point. The easiest way to recognize how to do that is to study and analyze other parodies. Here is an example of a comic that parodies other comics... Whack! Today I am presenting two stories from this issue...

WEIRD CREEPY AWFUL SPOOKY GHASTLY COMICS
This story is a parody of the EC Comics horror line, which included Tales From The Crypt, Vault Of Horror and The Haunt Of Fear. If you aren't familiar with these comics, you should check out the reprints produced by Russ Cochran.








STEVE CREVICE
This parody of Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon was created by cartoonist, William Overgard. Overgard was a friend of Caniff's. Once, when Caniff was hospitalized, Overgard ghosted a whole week of Steve Canyon dalies so Caniff had time to recouperate. This particular copy of Whack belonged to Caniff. It was lent to us by his estate to digitize.







Let me know in the comments below if you would like to see more from Whack comics.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Ripoff vs Inspiration: Chaplin's Shadow and Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies. Also see... Jim Tyer's Funny Animal Comics, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, and Boodie Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.27.09
.

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Pinups: Early Interlandi Playboy Cartoons

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


The internet never ceases to amaze me... I was working on this post, featuring early examples of Playboy cartoons by Phil Interlandi, when I took a break to check my email... A message had just come in from Interlandi's daughter Carla, filled with great info for our Cartoon Hall of Fame entry. I'm going to let her tell you about her father...

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PHIL INTERLANDI
By Carla Interlandi Armstrong
Phil Interlandi was a veteran freelance magazine cartoonist whose work appeared in national magazines ranging from Look to Better Homes & Gardens but most notably in Playboy, where he was a mainstay for decades. A longtime resident of Laguna Beach, CA, Interlandi sold his first cartoon to Playboy in 1955. "He had an acerbic wit." said Michelle Urry, Playboy's cartoon editor. "He just ran roughshod over all the sacred cows. He didn't care about the taboos."



The Chicago-born son of Sicilian immigrants, Interlandi showed artistic ability at an early age, as did his identical twin, Frank, who later became a syndicated political cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times. During World War II, Interlandi joined the Army at 17. He drew cartoons for The Yank, the Army newspaper, and was later a prisoner of war in Germany, a subject he didn't like to talk about according to his daughter, Liza Stewart.


After the war, Interlandi and his twin brother studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. Interlandi worked a number of years in advertising before becoming a full-time freelance magazine cartoonist. A year after he moved to Laguna Beach in 1952, his twin followed. The inseparable brothers were part of Laguna's colorful cadre of cartoonists that grew to include Ed Nofziger, John Dempsey, Don Tobin, Roger Armstrong, Dick Shaw, Virgil Partch and Dick Oldden.



Following Phil Interlandi's lead, the cartoonists began a midday ritual of taking a break from their drawing boards and meeting in the bar at the White House restaurant on Coast Highway. "That was the first bar I walked into in Laguna," Interlandi explained in 1982, "and it became a habit."



Interlandi illustrated a number of books, including Art Linkletter's Kids Say the Darndest Things, and I Wish I'd Said That, in addition to Dick Van Dyke's Faith, Hope and Hilarity: The Child's Eye View of Religion and Ed McMahon's The Barside Companion.



He was really just a marvelous artist," said New Yorker cartoonist Sam Gross, who had known Interlandi for 30 years. "He also really knew how to draw good looking girls and yet make the cartoon funny."



Phil Interlandi passed away in 2002 at the age of 78.



Thanks to Carla Interlandi Armstrong for the insights about her father's life and career.

For more Playboy cartoons, see these posts... Erich Sokol, Jack Cole And Other Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists, Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

If you're a fan of Playboy artists like Cole, Dedini, Wilson and Sokol, you will want to get this great collection of cartoons, Playboy: 50 Years- The Cartoons. Check it out!

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.26.09
.

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Theory: Chaplin's Shadow

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


The Legendary Charlie Chaplin
Recently, controversy has erupted in the blogosphere over artists who directly copy other artists' work (See the articles on Cartoonist Todd Goldman, Family Guy and Jerry Mouse and The Great Ripping Friends Rip-Off.) The issue of exactly where the dividing line lies between "homage" and "ripoff" is open for debate among fans, but today I want to speak to the artists out there... and in particular, aspiring animators. For you, this subject is more than just idle chatter.

Every day, an artist makes thousands of decisions. These decisions affect not just the piece he is working on at the time, but his entire creative output. It's important to understand why you're making the decisions you make, and to strive to work your problems out for yourself; not just apply someone else's decisions as a substitute for your own. Truly great artists refuse to even copy themselves... Take Terry-Toons animator Jim Tyer for instance. He never approached the same situation with the same animation twice in his entire career.

There are consequences to the decisions we make as artists. Sometimes in the heat of creativity, right and wrong can become blurred by practicality and commercial demands. It's up to you to balance those competing pressures, but as the old saying goes, "Virtue is its own reward."

It's hard to not react with bias to current examples of imitation, but time can lend clarity. I'm going to tell you about two performers who were popular nearly a century ago. One of them you know. The other you don't. The reason for that is in the decisions those two artists made. -Stephen Worth


Edgar Kennedy and Charlie Chaplin
CHAPLIN'S SHADOW
In 1916, Charlie Chaplin signed a contract with Mutual to produce 12 comedy shorts over a year and half's time. He was paid the unheard of amount of $670,000 for the shorts, and was given unprecidented creative freedom. We now know that the end result of this deal was a package of slapstick shorts that represent the most influential comedy films in the entire history of cinema. But back in 1916, it was just a LOT of money being paid to a relatively untested artist.

Here is an anthology that pulled together articles from Judge magazine during this seminal period in movie history...


In the pages of this anthology is this article on Chaplin's deal with Mutual. Although the form of the prose is quite different from what we read today in entertainment magazines and blogs, the apologies for appealing to the unrefined masses, complaints about big budgets, and stories about movie-star ego trips are the same sorts of sniping we read in reviews today. What this writer didn't know was that Chaplin was on the cusp of breaking through as the single most important filmmaker of his time.


Now that the stage is set, I want to introduce you to "The Shadow"...

Billy Ritchie worked alongside Chaplin on the English Music Hall stage, performing as the drunk in the classic sketch, "Mumming Birds", just as Chaplin did in his vaudeville days. Chaplin's biographer, David Robinson described this sketch like this...

The setting for "Mumming Birds" represents the stage of a small music hall, with two boxes at either side. The sketch opens with fortissimo music as a girl shows an elderly gentleman and his nephew- an objectionable boy, armed with peashooter, tin trumpet, and picnic hamper- into the lower O.P. box.

The Inebriated Swell is settled into the prompt side box, and instantly embarks upon some business of a very Chaplinesque character. He peels the glove from his right hand, tips the waiting attendant, and then, forgetting that he has already removed his glove, absently attempts to peel it off again. He tries to light his cigar from the electric light beside the box. The boy holds out a match for him, and in gracefully inclining to reach it, the Swell falls out of the box.

The show within the show consisted of a series of abysmal acts... The acts changed over the years, but some remained invariable: a ballad singer, a male voice quartet, and the Saucy Soubrette, delighting the Swell with her rendering of "You Naughty, Naughty Man!"

The finale was always "Marconi Ali, the Terrible Turk- the Greatest Wrestler Ever to Appear Before the British Public". The Terrible Turk was a poor, puny little man weighed down by an enormous mustache, who would leap so voraciously upon a bun thrown at him by the Boy that the Stage Manager had to cry out, "Back, Ali! Back!" The Turk's offer to fight any challenger for a purse of £100 provided the excuse for a general scrimmage to climax the act.

Ritchie came from the same basic background as Chaplin, so when Chaplin began to rise to fame, he was a natural choice to put out film comedy shorts to compete. Henry Lehrman, who was previously a director at Mack Sennett, hired Ritchie to star in a series under his "Lehrman Knock-Outs" banner. The comparisons with Chaplin were inevitable. Ritchie used the same costume that Chaplin wore in "Mumming Birds"... the bowler hat, bamboo cane and tattered suit that became famous as the Little Tramp costume.

Here is an interview with Ritchie made around 1916...



The author of this article makes it clear that Ritchie's career has one foot planted in his own shoes, and the other in Chaplin's. But it didn't last... When Chaplin's Mutual Shorts were released, they were a sensation. They blew Ritchie out of the water. Lehrman was forced to change distributors to Universal in 1917, and the quality of the films took a nose dive. Two years later, Ritchie was attacked on the set by an ostrich, and never recovered. He died from the injuries he sustained in 1921, leaving his wife without financial support.


Chaplin imitator, Billy West
Billy Ritchie wasn't the only Chaplin imitator... Billy West and Charles Amador also traded on the image of the Little Tramp; and a cartoon series produced by Gaumont in Europe exploited the character as well. Chaplin sued to protect his creation, but ultimately his own success and brilliant creativity plowed his imitators under better than any legal writ.

Ironically, Chaplin never sued his old comrade, Billy Ritchie. And after Ritchie's death, he took pity on his widow and gave her a job as his costumer. She prepared the Little Tramp costume for Chaplin's performances, just as she had for her late husband.

The history of film is full of stories like this. Here are Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo...


...remember them? No? Well, that's because they didn't last either. Petrillo was quoted as saying, "I hold the record for being the world's youngest has-been."

In time, surface similarities like the hat and cane cease to matter. Audiences didn't love Chaplin for his costume. It was the spark of genius in the creator that made the Little Tramp immortal. You can't steal genius. You may gain a short term benefit from ripping off another artist to further your own career, but you'll pay for it in the end.


The moral of this cautionary tale is to be true to yourself. The business has no shame. The audience won't sue you for ripping off someone else's idea. You need to develop a conscience for yourself. No one is going to do it for you. You owe it to your muse.

Here's an interesting post on a similar subject at John K's blog.

If you found this article interesting, see... The Application Of Inspiration / How To Properly Use Reference / Incorporating Natural Forms / (Visual) Literacy / Why Do We Need An Animation Archive?

If you want an incredible insight into the mind of a brilliant filmmaker, you will want to get the DVD of Unknown Chaplin. Using never before seen outtakes, these three programs reconstruct Chaplin's creative process from the ground up. This is one of the greatest documentaries ever made. Check it out!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.24.09
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History: The Building Of The Disney Studio

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Among the collection of Clair Weeks was a publication from 1939 dealing with the construction of Disney's studio in Burbank. It's a fascinating look at the way the Disney operation was structured at the peak of its success. The end of the article is taken up with a detailed description of the production process at Disney. (Note: There's an error in the order of the steps in the section on story- the script was transcribed from the storyboard, not the other way around. And they discuss voice recording out of sequence as well.)






Now that you've read the article, click on these images to see Hans Perk's AFilm LA for more info on the Burbank lot...


Aerial view of Burbank before Disney's studio is built.


Aerial view of the Disney studio.


Helen Jordan's photos of the studio under construction.


The newly completed animation building in 1939.
If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Clair Weeks Goodbye Book, the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book and Clair Week's Animal Studies. Also, see... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.19.09
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Illustration: 30s Colliers Illustrations

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping examples of classic illustration.


Yesterday, we had a wonderful surprise. Archive supporter Kent Butterworth stopped by lugging eight huge bound volumes under his arm. They were library copies of Colliers magazine from the late 1940s and early 1950s. He donated them to our library so folks who stop by can browse the amazing illustrations and cartoons. Thanks, Kent!

Here are a few images from the June 5th, 1948 issue... Check out the amazing illustrations for mundane products like outboard motors and golf balls! Magazines today can't compare.











Here's a batch of advertisements from the mid-1930s Colliers magazines loaned to us for digitization by archive supporter Mike Fontinelli. I don't know about you, but after looking over these great magazines, I have the urge to go out and buy a 1936 Terraplane!















If you enjoyed this post, check out... John Held Jr.'s Flappers, Arthur Szyk's The New Order and Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.14.09
.

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Comics: People On Paper (MGM/1945)

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.

ASIFA-Hollywood Board Member, Bill Turner was watching TCM the other night when he spotted a program that he knew would be great for the Archive...


This is a 1945 MGM short subject that shows the top newspaper cartoonists of the day at work in their studios and homes. Bill instantly recognized several cartoonists that we've featured here on this blog in the past few weeks. (Click on the picture to see our article.)


Milton Caniff
(Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon)


Hal Foster
(Prince Valiant)


Chic Young
(Blondie)


Al Capp
(Li'l Abner)
But that's not all... The film also includes footage of Bud Fischer (Mutt & Jeff), Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Dick Calkins (Flash Gordon), and Harold Gray (Little Orphan Annie). There's even a little bit of animation of Li'l Abner at the end! Check it out...


"Passing Parade: People On Paper" (MGM/1945)
(Quicktime 7 / 24 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Thanks to Bill Turner for taping this for us!

For more on newspaper cartoonists, see... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One: The Men Behind The Newspaper Comics, Part Two: How To Get Ideas / Studies of Comic Strips, Part Three: Single Panel and Sports Cartoonists and Part Four: Editorial Cartoons and Comic Books

Also see... Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals Part One, Part Two and Part Three. Also see... Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; and Rube Goldberg's Side Show.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.13.09
.

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Illustration: Rojankovsky's Frog Went A Courtin

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.


Archive supporter, Kent Butterworth dropped by with a wonderful children's book by the great illustrator Feodor Rojankovsky. Titled, Frog Went A-Courtin', this book won the Caldicot Prize in 1955 for Best Children's Picture Book of the year.

Rojankovsky was born in Russia in 1891, and served in the Russian army in the first World War. He spent some time in France, then emigrated to the United States when war broke out again in 1940. He was a prolific illustrator, creating over 100 picture books for Western Publishing's Golden Books line and for other publishers as well. When asked how be began his interest in art, he replied...

Two great events determined the course of my childhood. l was taken to the zoo and saw the most marvelous creatures on earth: bears, tigers, monkeys and reindeer, and, while my admiration was running high, l was given a set of color crayons. Naturally, I began immediately to depict the animals which captured my imagination. Also when my eider brothers, who were in schools in the capital, came home for vacation, I tried to copy their drawings and to imitate their paintings.

Later when l went to school in Reval Tallinn, an ancient town on the shores of the Baltic sea, my love for art was enhanced and strengthened by a passion for nature. Tallinn was surrounded by forest. The sea presented wonderful opportunities for excursions and study of sea life. But there were also steamers, sailboats, flags, and all the excitement of a port. This was no less exciting than playing Red Indians or reading James Fenimore Cooper, the beloved author of all Russian children before, during, and after the Revolution.

SELECTED ILLUSTRATIONS FROM
FROG WENT A-COURTIN'
Make sure to click on these to see them large. Rojankovsky was a master of texture, and the smaller size images don't show that as well.















If you found this to be useful, see also... Tibor Gergely's A Day In The Jungle, Gustaf Tenggren's The Little Trapper, Uncle Remus Stories Part One and Part Two, Little Verses Part One, Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One, Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

If you like this book, you're in luck... it's still in print. You can find it at Amazon.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Education: A Drawing Lesson From Walter Lantz

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


Walter Lantz was one of animation's pioneers. His career in animation went all the way back to 1917, when he was an assistant working at the Hearst cartoon studio under the supervision of Gregory LaCava. He became a director for Bray, creating the Dinky Doodle series, where he appeared in live action alongside the animated title character.

He moved to Hollywood in 1927 and worked for a time as a gag man for Mack Sennett and Hal Roach. A friendship with Universal studio chief, Carl Laemmle led to Lantz heading up his own studio at Universal. For the nearly half a century, Lantz produced great cartoons starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willy. He won ASIFA-Hollywood's highest honor, the Winsor McCay Award in 1973.

Archive supporter, Rich Borowy has been hard at work digitizing vintage television tapes from his personal collection for the Archive Database. Here is an example of the treasures he is contributing. This is an episode of the prime-time Woody Woodpecker Show from 1964. In this episode, Walter Lantz gives the kids in the audience a basic drawing lesson by showing a few of his staff artists at work. Included in this clip are Paul J. Smith and one of the few female animators from the golden age of animation, LaVerne Harding.




The best part about this program is that it includes the original commercials... and they are all animated! There are Kellogg's spots by Lantz's own studio starring Woody, as well as examples from Hanna-Barbera and Jay Ward.





Click on the link below to see a clip from this great TV program. Many thanks to Rich Borowy for sharing this with us!


Woody Woodpecker Show (Lantz/1964)
(Quicktime 7 / 13.8 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

If you are interested in vintage drawing lessons, don't miss Nat Falk's "How To Make Animated Cartoons" Part One: History of Animation, Part Two: The Cartoon Studios, Part Three: How Cartoons Are Made, Part Four: Drawing For Animation and Part Five: How To Animate.

For more drawing lessons, see The $100,000 Cartoon Drawing Course, Bill Nolan's Cartooning Self Taught and Willard Mullin On How To Draw Animals.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.11.09
.

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Pinups: Jack Cole And More Great 50s Playboy Cartoonists

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


Today, we continue our series of posts on the great cartoonists who worked for Playboy magazine over the years. Today, we feature artists from the late 1950s. Starting with...

JACK COLE
More than any other artist who worked at Playboy, Jack Cole was most responsible for establishing the tone and style of the single panel full page cartoons that appeared in its pages His watercolor technique was loose and free, but the overall impression was brilliantly planned out and remarkably expressive.

Born in 1914 in New Castle Pennsylvania, Cole was a self-taught artist. At age 17, he bicycled across the country to Los Angeles and sold the story of his odyssey, along with his own illustrations, to Boy's Life. After graduating from High School, he moved to New York and took up work in the comic book business. He moved up through the ranks at Harry A. Chesler, Centaur Publications and Lev Gleeson on a variety of crime and action comics. In 1940, he assisted WIll Eisner on The Spirit, ghosting the strip when Eisner was drafted during the War. He is best known though, as the creator of the Marvel superhero, Plastic Man.

In 1954, Cole began selling one panel "girlie" cartoons to various magazines, and his work caught the attention of the editors of the fledgling publication, Playboy. For the next few years, Cole's cartoons appeared in every issue, until his untimely suicide in 1958. Here are a few of Cole's beautiful watercolors from the late 1950s...







JACK DAVIS
When you think of Jack Davis, you probably think of his work with Harvey Kurtzman at Mad magazine, his covers for TV Guide, his advertising work and movie posters, and perhaps the Little Annie Fanny comics he painted for Kurtzman at Playboy. But you don't normally think of him as a one-panel cartoonist. Here's a rare example...



CHARLES W. MILLER
I don't have any info on Charles W. Miller. His tighter style is closer to the illustrators who worked for Colliers in the late 1940s than it is the washy, stylized work of Dedini, Sokol or Cole. But he was obviously a very accomplished artist- check out the sophisticated lighting in the second example for proof of that. If you know details of his biography, please post to the comments below.




AL STINE
Al Stine is still living, painting and teaching in South Carolina. In fact, he recently started doing editorial cartoons for the Anderson South Carolina Independent Mail. His masterful transparent watercolor technique really sets him apart. If you enjoy his work, drop him an email through his website- AlStine.com. It would be nice if someone out there would interview him and collect the info for our Biopedia Page.



Let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the great cartoonists of Playboy.

For more Playboy cartoons, see these posts... Eldon Dedini Part One and Part Two (video interview!), Erich Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

If you're a fan of Playboy artists like Cole, Dedini, Wilson and Sokol, you will want to get this great collection of cartoons, Playboy: 50 Years- The Cartoons. Check it out!

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.5.09
.

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Illustration: Lawson Wood- The Monkey Painter

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books and magazines.


Lawson Wood is one of the most unusual artists of the golden age of magazine illustration, largely because of the subject he chose to illustrate- monkeys... well, to be scientifically accurate, most of them are apes, but to a cartoonist, a monkey is a monkey.

Wood was born in London in 1878 to a family already well outfitted with artists. He developed his skills swiftly, and by age 18 he was a published illustrator. By the early years of the 20th century, he was established as an artist adept at both "straight" subjects and humorous fantasy. His images of cave men and dinosaurs were particularly popular in England, but the paintings that brought him fame in America were his monkeys...


This album was brought to us to digitize by archive supporter, Mike Fontanelli, and it gives you a good idea of how much Wood got out of his silly subject matter. Wood's Gran'pop Monkey and friends graced the cover of many issues of Colliers, and there was even talk of adapting the characters to star in a series of animated cartoons. Ub Iwerks was slated to produce the series, but the outbreak of war and the closing of Iwerks' studio nipped the idea in the bud. However, Wood understood the value of merchandising early on; he even headed up his own toy manufacturing firm, and he died a very wealthy man in 1957.

Some people can't get past the "kitsch factor" of Wood's illustrations. But even those who hate his work have to grudgingly admit that he had wonderful painting technique. Love him or hate him, here is Lawson Wood...












Mike Fontanelli recently brought by a big stack of vintage Colliers magazines with Wood covers for us to scan as well. Check these babies out!








The other day, I was surfing blogs and I came across a post that popped my eyes on Will Finn's blog, Small Room. It featured scans of a fabulous Wartime era calendar by Wood from Will's collection. I dropped him a note and he generously brought it by for us to scan for the Archive. Here are a few samples...






There are more images from this great calendar in Will's article on Lawson Wood. If you haven't bookmarked Will's page yet, you should. Where else are you going to find inspiration and insight like the stuff on Will Finn's Small Room?

For more info, see Bud Plant's terrific Lawson Wood Bio. Many thanks to Will Finn and Mike Fontanelli for their generous support of the Archive project.

If you found this post useful, see our posts on... 1940s Colliers Illustration and Colliers From The 30s.

Also see... The Genius Of Miguel Covarrubias, Wartime Propaganda Posters Part One and Part Two, Will Finn's Letter From Ward Kimball, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll / Frank Reynolds Paints Pickwick / Arthur Szyk's The New Order / Artzybasheff's Neurotica, Machinalia and Diablerie

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

3.3.09
.

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Comics: Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon Dalies

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today, we have an exciting post for you... original artwork by Milton Caniff for the Steve Canyon newspaper strip.


Archive supporter, John Ellis is working with the family of Milton Caniff on a DVD release of the live action Steve Canyon television series, which debuted in September of 1958 on NBC. In searching through the family's collection of memorabilia, John stumbled across a batch of original inks of daily and Sunday pages that the family didn't realize that they had. The estate of Milton Caniff has generously allowed the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to digitize the material for inclusion in our cartoon database.


John Ellis has been doing considerable research into Caniff and Steve Canyon. I asked him to write a few words about Caniff...

Milton Caniff has been referred to as "The Rembrandt of the Comic Strip", and oft by himself as "an Armchair Marco Polo", but in fact this whirlwind of a comic strip innovator and writer was essentially a sincerely nice man who loved to draw. Yes this gentleman born in Hillsboro Ohio in 1907 created and drew Terry and The Pirates from 1934 to 1946, which absolutely set the standard for the adventure comic strip. True, he raised the bar with Steve Canyon, which unlike Terry, he owned lock stock and barrel from the first daily strip in January 1947 through to June 1988, the final installment published shortly after his death. Absolutely he worked rain or shine, seven days/strips a week for 54 years, even from his hospital bed, the deadlines never ended.

Milton Caniff in his studio ca. 1947
(click for a larger view)

But beyond the art and dedication, what is true is that I've never heard an unkind word in his regard. His nephew Harry Guyton can't even remember Milton ever losing his temper. My friend David Haft, who produced the NBC Steve Canyon primetime TV series in 1958, made a comment as we watched Milton on a vintage filmclip promoting the series recently. He said "Lovely, lovely man". Happy 100th birthday Milton.

John Ellis
Hollywood, 2007

This is the first of several posts featuring the Caniff Collection. Make sure to click on the images to see high resolution versions. Caniff's amazing adventure strip from the late 40s has never looked better!
















If you enjoyed this post, see... Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning Part One- Meet The Men Behind the Comics and Part Two- Studying Comic Strips, Dan Gordon's Superkatt, Rube Goldberg's Side Show and Alex Toth Model Sheets

STEVE CANYON TV SHOW

For info on the Steve Canyon TV show DVD, see... www.stevecanyondvd.blogspot.com

STEVE CANYON AT AMAZON

Fantagraphics has a great book on Caniff's career, and Checker has released year by year reprints of the classic Steve Canyon strip. Caniff was a master storyteller, and the first few years of Steve Canyon are examples of his genius at the height of its powers. Click on the pictures for more info.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

"Steve Canyon" is a Registered Trademark of the Milton Caniff Estate.
© 2007 Milton Caniff Estate. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

2.24.09
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Story: The Greatest Cartoon Writer Of All Time

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



The other day, a discussion on cartoon writing erupted in response to recent posts on the subject in John Kricfalusi's blog. One of John's main points is that the golden age cartoons that we all regard as the greatest cartoons ever created were written by cartoonists as storyboards, not written in words as scripts. In support of his argument, he presented video clips of Walt Disney and Walter Lantz discussing the qualifications of the people who wrote their cartoons. (See also, Page 5 of the 1938 Disney Training Manual).

The scriptwriters dismissed John K's points as old fashioned and irrelevant to the current scene, while expressing respect of a general sort for the classic cartoons of the past. They claimed that it was just a matter of John's personal tastes, not a reflection on the effectiveness of the process itself. They never seemed to address the fact that prior to 1960 stories for cartoons weren't created and developed with words in script form- they were drawn. In listening to these arguments by current cartoon scriptwriters, I began to wonder how much they really knew about the process used to make the classic cartoons they expressed respect for. I posed a simple question...

Who was your favorite golden age cartoon writer?

It's a fair question- one that I've heard animators discuss and argue about on many occasions. Surely current cartoon writers would have golden age writer heros, just like animators study golden age animators like Milt Kahl or Grim Natwick...


Disney story man, Joe Rinaldi
But none of the scriptwriters participating in the discussion could name a single golden age cartoon writer. The only names they could mention were other current scriptwriters, or novelists, journalists and live action screenwriters who worked in totally different media. They had no idea who pioneered their profession and the process these people used to create cartoons for nearly half a century. To be fair, this sort of ignorance of the history of our craft isn't just limited to writers. I've heard the same sort of admissions of ignorance from producers and directors, as well as artists and animators.

Here is an example of a story by my favorite golden age story man... Warren Foster.

Warren Foster is responsible for writing many of the greatest cartoons ever made... He started as a gag man on Fleischer's Popeye series in New York, and moved West in 1938 to join Bob Clampett at Warner Bros. He wrote a string of classic cartoons... "Coal Black And De Sebben Dwarfs", "Birdy And The Beast", "Falling Hare", "Baby Bottleneck", "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery", and perhaps Bugs Bunny's most shaded performance, "Tortoise Wins By A Hare".

After Clampett's departure from the studio, he wrote for McKimson ("Gorilla My Dreams", "Easter Yeggs", "The Foghorn Legorn") and Freleng ("Ballot Box Bunny", "Bugs And Thugs", "Birds Anonymous"). Freleng said that Foster was the best story man he ever worked with. In the TV era, Foster wrote episodes of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Quick Draw McGraw, The Jetsons and The Flintstones.

Here is a storyboard by Foster from his days at Hanna-Barbera. This is a model of clarity and simplicity, designed to meet the stringent economics imposed on TV animation at the time. This is a board from the pilot episode of The Yogi Bear Show.

















WHAT ABOUT ADVENTURE SHOWS
AND COMIC STRIPS?

In his article, "Detour Guide For An Armchair Marco Polo", master comic strip storyteller, Milton Caniff writes...

There has been a tendency recently for artists to automatically assume they cannot write their own stories because they see so many double by-lines. I contend that any man who can invent pictures can invent situations and dialogue. In fact, it should be easier for the artist to pilot his own action because he is not likely to write himself into one of those undrawable dilemmas in manuscripts about which illustrators have complained for years. --Milton Caniff

Sound familiar?

I'm working on a series of illustrated articles on how cartoons were written in the "golden age". For the first four installments, see...

WRITING CARTOONS

Part One- The Gag Session
Part Two- A Continuity Emerges
Part Three- Structure
Part Four: The Rough Board

If you found this post to be interesting, see also... Ren & Stimpy: Big House Blues Part One, Part Two and Part Three / The Alvin Show: The Whistler Storyboard / Chad's Design For Television / Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy's Invention Part One and Part Two / Charlie McElmurry's Year Of The Tiger Storyboard.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

2.23.08
.

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Pinups: Eldon Dedini's Satyrs and Nymphs

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.


You can't beat Christmas in the country.
A while back, we posted a group of Playboy cartoons by Eldon Dedini. Today, we present more of this artist's amazing work, along with a video interview of Dedini in his studio discussing how he got his start.

Eldon Dedini is best known for his magazine cartoons from Esquire and Playboy. But early in his career, he was an editorial cartoonist for local newspapers, and a story man for Walt Disney.

Archive supporter, Ken Kearney lives close to the Monterey area, where Dedini lived and worked for many years. In 2005, he produced an interview video, which he generously donated to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive for our biographical database. Here is a clip from Ken's video where Dedini tells how he got started as a cartoonist and his experiences as a story man with Disney on Fun & Fancy Free and Donald Duck cartoons like Dumbell of the Yukon.



Eldon Dedini Interview (Ken Kearney/2005)
(Quicktime 7 / 14.2 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

DEDINI IN PLAYBOY
Here is a feature on Dedini's famous "Satyr & Nymph" comics from Playboy, followed by some higher resolution images of individual cartoons...







We forgot the picnic basket!


I'd like you to meet my father,
but I don't dare. You know how
even old satyrs are!


It's not that I didn't believe in Santa Claus-
It's just that you've shattered my image
somehow...
For more info on the great cartoonists who worked for Playboy in the 1960s, see these posts... Eldon Dedini Part One, Erich Sokol, Kurtzman & Elder's Little Annie Fanny, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

If you're a fan of Dedini, you will want to get Fantagraphic's great book, An Orgy Of Eldon Dedini. It comes with a DVD documentary called "Dedini: A Life In Cartoons" Check it out!

I'm not sure if Ken is offering these for sale, but if you would like to inquire about ordering a DVD of Ken Kearney's Dedini interview, email, kenkearneystudios@hotmail.com.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

2.10.09
.

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Comics: Walt Kelly's Pogo

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about comics.


Today is the Annie Awards. One of the most important contributors to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive project, Mike Fontanelli will be honored tonight for his immense help with documenting the lives and careers of great artists like Al Capp, Willard Mullin and Walt Kelly. I figured today would be a good day to rerun one of Mike's great articles...

FONTANELLI ON KELLY
One of the great heavy-hitters in the entire history of cartooning, Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr. was born in Philadelphia on August 25, 1913, although his family relocated to Bridgeport, Connecticut during his second year.

Migrating to California to work on Donald Duck cartoons at Walt Disney Studios in 1935, he stayed until the strike in 1941, long enough to animate on Snow White, Fantasia, Dumbo and The Reluctant Dragon. As good as Kelly's animation was, (had he stayed on, we'd all doubtless be reading about Disney's TEN "Old Men") his greatest achievements still lay ahead.

After leaving Disney, Kelly worked for Dell Comics. Here is a story he did for a 1946 Raggedy Ann & Andy comic book (the cover is from a 1948 issue)...








During his stints at Dell and the New York Star, Kelly introduced his most memorable creation to the world- in the unassuming form of a philosophical, swamp-dwelling possum named Pogo. The true heir of Herriman's Krazy Kat and Uncle Remus, Pogo was an American comic strip masterpiece. A flawless blend of slapstick, parody, allegory, political commentary, intellectual whimsy, social satire and Irish poetry- Pogo can be read on several levels at once, and it set a new standard of excellence in newspaper humor strips that has never been equaled.

Kelly has been compared to everyone from James Joyce to Lewis Carroll to T.S. Sullivant. He was named "Cartoonist of the Year" in 1952, and was elected president of the National Cartoonists Society two years later. He was the first strip cartoonist to be invited to contribute originals to the Library of Congress, and published some three dozen books during his lifetime- classics, all.


It's impossible for Gen X-ers weaned on modern tripe like Dilbert and Drabble to imagine the incredible graphic brilliance within the panels of Pogo. I remember literally getting lost in a Kelly Sunday page as a child, staring at the inspirational artwork for hours on end.

More than any other influence, I owe my choice of profession to the master, Walt Kelly. Here's some cool stuff from my collection. Enjoy!

Mike Fontanelli
Los Angeles, 2007

MIKE'S ORIGINAL KELLY SUNDAY PAGES
Make sure you click on these... They're amazing!






Take a moment to visit the official Pogo homepage.

ARCHIVAL POGO
Thanks, Mike for allowing us to digitize your original Pogo Sunday pages. For those of you out there who still don't understand how our archive works, what you see here on this blog is just a small representation of what our archive contains. For instance, we scanned Mike's Pogo inks at 1200 dots per inch- much larger than you see here on the blog. Each one of the Sunday pages comes out at a filesize of 1.7 gigs. For a sample of how detailed our scans are, click on the image below and compare it to the last panel of the last Sunday page...


You can see the grain in the paper! We scan every image in our collection at this resolution.

If you enjoyed this post, see also... The Father of Cartooning: T. S. Sullivant, Cliff Sterrett's Polly & Her Pals, , Harrison Cady's Birds Eye Views, Rube Goldberg's Side Show, and Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.30.08
.

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Tangent: Live The Fabulous Lifestyle Of A Hollywood Cartoonist

John Kricfalusi posted a blistering post this morning about popular culture and the upside down meaning of the words "liberal" and "conservative" today. If you haven't read it yet, check it out. Here is my own take on a similar theme...

LIVE THE FABULOUS LIFESTYLE OF A HOLLYWOOD CARTOONIST

The other day, a student at Woodbury volunteered to help build out our database. His name is Jo-Jo. He told me how much this blog, along with Eddie Fitzgerald's and John K's, has opened his eyes to how great cartoons were in the 30s, 40s and 50s. He had a sketchbook full of Preston Blair drawings and enthusiasm for Fleischer, MGM and Warner Bros cartoons. So I asked him what kinds of music he listens to...

"David Bowie mostly."

My jaw hit the floor. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I gave Jo-Jo the best tip he'll ever get...

Cartoons aren't the only things that were better back in the first half of the 20th century.

Mike Fontanelli stopped by later and pointed out that somebody should write a book titled "The Golden Age of Everything". Sure, there are things today that are incredibly great... computers, the internet, iPods, frost-free refrigerators, etc... but music, dance, illustration, writing, movies and cartoons were all better back then. Cartoonists should be aware of this, and they should absorb all of the greatness of the past. It will make them better cartoonists.

Today, I'm going to talk about music...


I know that someone out there is going to post a comment saying that there's still great music being made, it just isn't mainstream. I'm fully aware of the fact that there are talented musicians working today. But in the 30s through the 50s, incredible talent was a given. Performers, from the top of the heap to the bottom- from most popular to least- were all capable of making you do a double take and say "wow!".

When I ask kids what kinds of music they listen to, I usually get the response, "All kinds." But "all kinds" usually turns out to mean a million shades of the same color... current rock music. There are so many names today for the same kind of music. For the life of me, I can't tell the difference between rave, techno and electronica. In the past, there really were a million kinds of music... pop vocals, hot jazz, country western, big band swing, folk, rhythm & blues, bluegrass, mambo, dixieland, rock n' roll, sweet orchestral, be bop...

I could talk for hours about this subject, but the best proof is seeing what I'm talking about...

JAZZ
Lucky Millinder & Sister Rosetta Tharpe
"Four Or Five Times" (Soundie/1941)
(Quicktime 7 / 5.5 megs)

COUNTRY MUSIC
Larry Collins & Joe Maphis
"Under The Double Eagle" (Tex Ritter's Ranch Party/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 5 megs)

THE BLUES
Leadbelly
"Gray Goose" "Pick A Bale Of Cotton"(1950s)
(Quicktime 7 / 10 megs)

POPULAR MUSIC
Les Paul & Mary Ford
"The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" "Amuka Riki" (Grand Old Opry/1959)
(Quicktime 7 / 12 megs)

If you are a student planning to be a professional cartoonist, listen to music that relates to your work- read books that inspire cartoony ideas- watch movies to learn cinematic techniques that can be applied to cartooning- LIVE THE FABULOUS LIFESTYLE OF A FAMOUS HOLLYWOOD CARTOONIST!

By the way... Jo-Jo is a big Fats Waller fan now!

Let me know in the comments if you'd like more posts about other tangential subjects related to cartoons.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.27.09
.

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Illustration: N. C. Wyeth's Legends of Charlemagne

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


Today, we digitized a beautiful first edition of Bulfinch's "Legends of Charlemagne" illustrated by N. C. Wyeth. No illustrator of the golden age had a wider influence on the world of art than Wyeth. His son, Andrew Wyeth became a reknowned fine artist, and many of his other children and grandchildren became artists and musicians as well.

Wyeth studied under illustrator Howard Pyle, and quickly made a name for himself. His first published art was a cover for the Saturday Evening Post, a plum job right off the bat. In his early days, he was known as a Western artist. He travelled West to soak up the landscape. The trip resulted in a portfolio of images of Indians that vividly capture the light and spirit of the Old West.

Wyeth is best known for his book illustrations though. In 1911, he painted 16 color plates for Scribner's edition of Stevenson's "Treasure Island". It remains the classic version of the book. Wyeth was incredibly prolific over the next decade or so, "Treasure Island" was followed by "Kidnapped", "The Black Arrow", "The Boy's King Arthur" and many more. The book we are presenting today was published in 1924 by David McKay. It displays Wyeth at the top of his form. Even the endpapers are beautiful!












If you enjoyed this post, see... Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights, Frank Reynolds Paints Pickwick, John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll, Edmund Dulac's Tanglewood Tales and Gustaf Tenggren's Wonderbook

I'll be back with more great stuff later this week.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.23.09
.

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Character Design: Alex Toth Model Sheets

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



Alex Toth passed away last year at the age of 77. Along with Will Eisner and Jack Kirby, Toth is considered one of the giants of adventure comics. Today's post is just the first of several on this important artist. Toth began his career at age 15, creating illustrations for Heroic magazine. He graduated from the High School of Industrial Arts in 1947, and soon was working at DC Comics on The Flash, Green Lantern and The Atom. He left DC in 1952 and was drafted into the Army in 1954.

After his stint in the service, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked for Dell on the highly regarded Zorro comics. In 1964, he joined Hanna-Barbera as a designer and storyboard artist on Space Angel, Jonny Quest, Herculoids and Super Friends. His designs for these shows are masterful and imaginative.

The pity is that the actual animation on these shows isn't even close to being in the same league. Realistic designs like these are very difficult to animate, and require a draftsman of Toth's calibre to be able to pull off convincingly. But the late 60s was the wrong time for such a challenge. Hanna Barbera was in a mad race with Filmation to see who could put out the cheapest factory-made programming on the tightest schedule. Toth's imagination and skill were left behind in the dust. Instead of respecting what could have been, Toth's designs are now taken completely out of context and subjected to ridicule in current TV programs.

Archive supporter, Kent Butterworth brought us a few original Toth drawings to digitize, and I've supplemented them with some xeroxes belonging to the family of Carlo Vinci.

















If you found this post to be interesting, see also... Gene Byrnes' Complete Guide To Cartooning, Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights, Lotte Reineger's Prince Achmed Part One and Part Two and The Wan Brothers.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.22.09
.

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Biography: The Father of Cartooning- T. S. Sullivant

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.



T. S. Sullivant is one of the most important cartoonists in the history of the medium. He pioneered many of the elements of anthropomorphism that we now take for granted. The general public may not be familiar with his name, but animators sure appreciate his work. (See Eddie Fitzgerald's first article on Sullivant and his second.) The influence of Sullivant's animals (along with the work of Heinrich Kley...) can be seen in many of the Disney features.

Sullivant was born in 1854, and didn't begin cartooning professionally until the age of 32. His cartoons appeared in Life and Puck during the 1890s, and in Judge around the turn of the century. William Randolph Hearst signed him to an exclusive contract in 1904, and his mastheads populated by cartoony animals appeared on the top of the Hearst comics pages until 1907. Sullivant returned to Life magazine in 1911, and remained there until his death in 1926.

Sullivant's pen and ink style doesn't really suit itself for reproduction on a computer screen, but I have made large versions available of all of these images. Just click on the picture to see it larger.


















For more on pioneering cartoonists, see... Cliff Sterrett's Polly & her Pals Part One and Part Two; Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part One, Part Two and Part Three; Harrison Cady's Birds' Eye Views and Rube Goldberg's Side Show

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.21.09
.

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Animation Art: MGM Animation Drawings

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.



Today, we digitized a collection of animation drawings from MGM. Can anyone out there name all the cartoons represented here? Post your guesses to the comments below. Have fun!


















If you found this post to be interesting, see also... Cartoons: Tail of Two Bulldogs

For more sketches to study, see... Reluctant Dragon and Pinocchio Model Sheets, Two Disney Concept Artists, Mice & Duck Models and More Disney Model Sheets.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.20.09
.

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Instruction: Clair Weeks Animal Studies 1940

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great art instruction posts.


Today, I'm proud to present more amazing treasures from the Clair Weeks collection. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Weeks was born the son of a missionary in India. At DIsney, he was often teased about his resemblence to a village parson or pilgrim. (See caricature to the right.)

Around 1940, Disney Studios was at its peak. Several animated feature films were in production at once, and the staff numbered at an all time high. Disney instituted a comprehensive training program for the artists at his studio, which included life drawing, animal studies and action analysis classes under the direction of Don Graham. Today, we scanned animal drawings by Clair Weeks from these classes.


Archive supporter, Mike Fontanelli was in last night when I was scanning these beautiful sketches, and he expressed his admiration for Weeks' skill. It's difficult to draw animals and capture any kind of natural pose because they are always moving. Weeks not only exhibited mastery of construction and posing, but also the ability to embed the spark of life that makes a drawing come alive. His technique allowed for both analytically realistic depiction and cartoony stylized caricature.

Aspiring cartoonists and animators should look over these drawings carefully and make a trip to the zoo to study the animals themselves the way the artists did at Disney in 1940.
















If you found this interesting, you'll want to check out our previous posts about material from the collection of Clair Weeks... Clair Weeks Goodbye Book and the 1938 Disney Artists Tryout Book. Also, see... Willard Mullen on Animals.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

1.14.08
.

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Pinups: John Held Jr.

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 9 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great pinup art.

Today, Archive volunteer, Gary Francis brought in a couple of Playboys from the late 60s to add to our collection of digitized images by Sokol, Dedini, Interlandi, Sneyd and Vargas. We will be posting more by these great artists soon, but I particularly wanted to bring this great feature on John Held Jr. to your attention.

John Held Jr was born in 1889, and by the age of 16 was an accomplished sports cartoonist for the Salt Lake City Tribune. He served in the military during WWI, and soon after his return he gained fame for his work as an illustrator for Life, Judge and College Humor. His style and subject matter defined the "Jazz Age" of the 1920s. His cartoons depicting sexy flappers and their raccoon coated beaus living the life of flaming youth were all the rage. In later years, he worked in woodcuts and illustrated scenes from the "Gay Nineties"

Here is a feature on Held from the January 1966 issue of Playboy magazine...









I just added the last page of this article, which includes some great biographical info on Held. (A nice Virgil Partch comic too!) If you would like to see more of Held's work, visit Shane Glines' excellent site... CartonRetro.com.

If you find this posting to be useful, you should also see our postings on George Petty's Ridgid Tools Calendars, Erich Sokol, Eldon Dedini, Doug Sneyd and Phil Interlandi.

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.22.08
.

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Illustration: EInar Norelius' Bland Tomtar Och Troll

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


A few weeks ago, we featured the work of John Bauer from the Swedish Christmas annual, Bland Tomtar Och Troll. After Bauer's premature death in a shipwreck, Gustaf Tenggren took over the series. A few years later, Tenggren relocated to America and the job was passed on to Einar Norelius.

I first heard of Norelius on P-E Fronning's blog, Martin Klasch. After seeing the beautiful illustrations from Jim, Jock and Jumbo that Fronning posted to his Flickr page, I went searching for books Norelius had illustrated. I found a batch of various vintages of Bland Tomtar Och Troll with an online bookseller in Sweden and had them shipped to me sight unseen. I wasn't disappointed...

1929














1934















1944/49











Wouldn't some of these designs work great as stop motion puppets? If you have any information on Einar Norelius, please let us know about it in the comments below.

See also... John Bauer's Bland Tomtar Och Troll (1917), Gustaf Tenggren's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, Arthur Rackham's Grimm's Fairy Tales Part One and Part Two, and Kay Nielsen's East of the Sun and West of the Moon and Hansel & Gretel.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.17.08
.

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Illustration: Disney Christmas Cards

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.

Not a creature was stirring... except Mickey Mouse!

The weather is turning snappy, and the holiday cards are beginning to arrive at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, so the Christmas holiday must be close on the horizon. It's time again to share this batch of wonderful Christmas cards from the Disney studio collected by Disney animator, Claire Weeks from 1938 through the mid-1950s. The designs on these cards are so much fun, it makes you wish the films themselves looked this cartoony.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our friends at Anime Weekend Atlanta. They sent us a generous Christmas gift that will go a long way to purchasing the collection of St Nicholas Magazines I told you about last week. I hope those of you out there who have benefitted from the work we are doing at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive will remember us with a gift of support this Christmas. I'd also like to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing these great cards with us. See the bottom of this post for links to more treasures from the Weeks collection.

1938








1948




1949





1950





1951





1952





1953





1954





1955





1956




For more treasures from the collection of Clair Weeks, see... History: Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book and History: 1938 Disney Artists' Tryout Book

See you at the Annies!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.15.08
.

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History: Disney's Artist Tryout Book

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 8 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great info on the history of animation told through the careers of great animators.


Today, we scanned another fascinating document from the collection of Clair Weeks. This is the "Disney Studios Artist's Tryout Book" from 1938. It provides a valuable overview of the production process and description of the various job categories. You will definitely want to print this out and study it carefully.

Here are some quotes from this booklet that you might find interesting...

STORY MEN must be able to draw. The stories are not written but are visualized in sketch form.

The value of an animator is dependent upon his ability to dramatize and caricature life, and to time and stage his characters' actions in an unusual and interesting way. An animator must be a showman- he must know how to entertain an audience, to present a gag, to picture dramatically an ordinary incident. Above all, he must be a sure and skillful draftsman.

THE DIRECTOR must have complete knowledge of every phase of animation, have executive ability and outstanding dramatic talent. He must be familiar with practically all of the Arts... To date, all directors have arisen from the ranks of the Studio, sometimes through story work, but more often through animation. Because of the complexity of animation it seems that this will continue to be the case.

All inking and painting of celluloids, and all tracing done in the Studio is perfomed exclusively by a large staff of girls known as Inkers and Painters... This is the only department in the Disney Studio open to women artists.

The original brochure was in very poor condition, with tears and waterstains throughout. I'm sure that this was carried around in Weeks' back pocket for quite a while. But Photoshop can work miracles, so these scans ended up looking better than the original.

In case you haven't noticed, the Archive has become "an embarassment of riches". We are doing very important work here. I hope you will support our project any way you can.


















If you found this useful, you'll also want to check out... Walt Disney Goes To War, John Canemaker on Bill Tytla and Musical Timing Rediscovered.

Jerry Beck posted a related booklet at Cartoon Brew... Titled "The Ropes At Disney", it outlines the rules and regulations governing the employees of the studio and the organizational hierarchy of the various departments.



If you haven't seen it yet, make a point of checking it out.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.11.08
.

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Comics: Dan Gordon's SuperKatt

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.

The other day, John K posted an article in his blog about Dan Gordon. He described Gordon as a "pure cartoonist" whose characters seem really alive and motivated from within.

Gordon was an animator, story man and director on the Superman and Popeye series at Fleischer in the early 1940s. After the war, he dropped out of animation and made a living as a comic book artist, working on titles like Giggle Comics. He returned to animation in the late 1950s as a storyboard artist at Hanna Barbera, (Gordon boarded the pilot episode of The Flintstones) and on Clampett's Beany & Cecil series.

Here is an example of Gordon's work featuring Superkatt. These scans were donated to the Archive by our good friend Kent Butterworth. Thanks Kent!










For more on Dan Gordon, see Sherm Cohen's great features at Cartoon Snap.

If you enjoyed this comic, see also... Milt Stein's Supermouse Comics No. 4, Basil Wolverton's Powerhouse Pepper, and Boody Rogers' Babe Comics Part One, Part Two and Part Three.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

12.10.08
.

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Comics: Milton Knight's A. Conan Doyle

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 2 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about print cartoonists.

Today, we had a visit from the talented cartoonist, Milton Knight. He brought along the original boards from one of his stories for Graphic Classics series.

Milton is an amazing artist... His work is informed by a diverse variety of influences, from Japanese art to Terrytoons. His compositions and line reflect a distillation of the New York cartooning style, while still remaining uniquely his own. I can't think of a single living cartoonist whose work in any way resembles Milton's. He's truly one of a kind.

Milton kindly agreed to let us post this entire story adapted from a short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...

THE GREAT BROWN-PERICORD MOTOR

















If you enjoyed this story, you can find the Graphic Classics Anthologies at Amazon. Also, make it a point to visit Milton's Website.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Biography: Clair Weeks' Goodbye Book 1952

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 4 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great biographies of important artists.


Today, we had a visit from the family of Clair Weeks. They brought along several portfolios full of beautiful drawings, mostly from Bambi. Over the next few weeks, they will be allowing the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive to digitize the material for inclusion in our database. They also promise to write a Biopedia Page for Weeks. Here is the "Readers' Digest version" of Weeks' career...

A missionary's son, Clair Weeks was born in 1912 in India. He lived there until the early 1930s, when he relocated to America. In 1936, he joined the staff of the Walt Disney Studio and set to work as an assistant on Snow White. He went on to assist Marc Davis on Bambi, CInderella and Peter Pan, taking a brief break from animation to serve in the military during WW2.

In the early 50s, Weeks left the studio travel the world. He eventually settled in Bombay, India, where he headed up a government owned studio that produced animated shorts. Weeks' impact on Indian animation was immense. The people he trained were the pioneers who established the Indian animation industry.


The treasure I'm presenting today dates to August of 1952... It's the scrapbook given to Weeks upon his departure from Disney. I won't spoil the fun by telling you what's in it. Click on the images and prepare to be amazed! (Thanks to Hans Perk for the identifications!)



Members of the "9 Old Men": Marc Davis (Weeks was his assistant), Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, Milt Kahl, Eric Larson / Assistant Animators: Bob McCrea, Clarke Mallery, Iwao Takamoto, Julius Svendsen, Bill Eigle (?)


Ben Sharpsteen (Director) / Hazel George (Studio Nurse) / Hal Adelquist (Asst. Director) / Oliver Wallace (Music) / Koneta Roxby (Library) / Bob Gibeaut (Cutting) / Jo Sears (Ink & Paint / Production)


Layout Artists: Lance Nolley, Al Zinnen, Don Griffith, Ken Anderson, Ken O'Connor, Mike Holoboff, MacLaren Stewart, Basil Davidovich, Tom Codrick, Charles Philippi / Background Artists: Jimi Trout, Hugh Hennesy, Ray Huffine, Art Riley, Dick Anthony, Ralph Hulett, Al Dempster, Claude Coats, Art Landy / Art Directors: Thor Putnam, John Hench / Directors: Jack Kinney, Charles "Nick" Nichols, Gerry Geronimi, Wilfred "Jaxon" Jackson / Asst Directors: Bee Selck, Lou Debney, Toby Tobelman (?) / Directors' Secretary: Marie Dasnoit / The Man: Walt Disney / Tom Jekel (?)


Animators: Bob Youngquist, Jack Campbell, Les Clark (9 Old Men), Hugh Fraser, John Lounsbery (9 Old Men), Harry Holt, Art Stevens, George Nicholas / Asst Animators: Walt Stanchfield, Lou Appet, Bob Ogle, Dale Barnhart


Don DaGradi (Art Director)



Animators / Assistants: Dick Lucas / Al Wilson / Jim Steele / Eric Cleworth / Ambrozy Paliwoda / Jerry Hathcock / Charlie "Chuck" Downs / Bob Carlson / Woolie Reitherman (9 Old Men) / Ed Soloman / Wathel Rogers


Bonar Dyer (Personnel) / Mary Flanigan (Notary) / Bunny Venable (Production or Legal)



Mostly Effects Animators: Retta Davidson, Dwight Carlisle, Joe Nunez, Sandy Strother, Dan MacManus, Al Severns, George Rowley, Marion Mahnken, Jack "Buck" Buckley, Frank Onaitis, Ed Parks, Jane Fowler


Ed Aardal (Animator) / Harvey Orr (Print Shop) / Johnny Bond (Head of Clean Up)




Ken Peterson (Animator / Prod. Mgr. / Scheduling) / Andy Engman (Effects Animator / Prod. Mgr.) / Esther "Esta" Haight (Front Office File Room / Western Union) / Anne Meyer (Production?)


Thanks to the family of Clair Weeks for sharing this with us!

If you enjoyed this post, you'll also want to check out... Art Babbitt's Best Scene / Canemaker on Tytla Part One and Part Two and Carlo Vinci, Pioneer Animator

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.26.08
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Illustration: Uncle Remus Stories 1949

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 3 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about 50s children's book illustrators.


On Saturday archive volunteer, Eric Graf brought by another treasure for us to digitize... a 1949 edition of the Disney Giant Golden Book, "Uncle Remus Stories". It features a spectacular cover by Mary Blair and many beautiful interior illustrations by Al Dempster and Bill Justice.

This book is interesting, not just for its relationship to the rarely seen Disney film, Song of the South, but for the material that doesn't appear in the film. Along with the familiar stories about the Tar Baby and Brer Rabbit's Laffin' Place, the book illustrates a dozen other stories like "De Great Rabbit Terrapin Race", "Brer Fox and de Stolen Goobers" and "Why de Cricket Fambly Lives in Chimbleys".
































If you found this to be useful, see also... Little Verses Part One, Part Two and The New Golden Song Book Part One , Part Two and Part Three, and Huckleberry Hound Builds A House.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.24.08
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Illustration: Maxfield Parrish's Arabian Nights 1909

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for more jaw dropping images from classic illustrated books.


Yesterday, I posted on Lotte Reiniger's Prince Achmed, and I thought it might be interesting to see a different approach to the same subject... this time by illustrator Maxfield Parrish.

Parrish was one of the most successful artists of the golden age of illustration. It is said that during the depression, there were more Maxfield Parrish prints hanging on the walls of American homes than there were American homes!

The book I'm featuring today was done early in Parrish's career, but it contains all of the aspects of his style that would make him famous... the electric blues set off of bright sunset oranges, the dramatic lighting effects, the amazingly lifelike natural shapes and patterns contrasted with large flat areas of color, and the total control of the mechanical aspects of offset printing... if you look carefully at the foliage in the image with the urns on either side, you can see that the painting was pasted up from several pieces. Bud Plant's website has an interesting article on how Parrish used the four color process. Check it out.











I'll be posting soon on another of the great American illustrators, N. C. Wyeth.

If you enjoyed this post, see... Edmund Dulac's Tanglewood Tales and Gustaf Tenggren's Wonderbook

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.21.08
.

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Filmography: Reiniger's Prince Achmed, The First Animated Feature

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.


If you ask the average person what the first feature-length animated film was, just about everyone will answer Walt Disney's "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs". But Disney's film wasn't the first animated feature by a longshot. Arguably, that honor belongs to Lotte Reiniger's "Adventures of Prince Achmed".


In 1923, Reiniger and her husband and business partner, Carl Koch began work on an ambitious project... a feature length silhouette puppet film based on "The One Thousand and One Nights". She worked with animator Bertold Bartosch and background artist Walter Ruttman for three years on the film. The paper cutouts were jointed using wires and delicately arranged on top of a lightbox, where it was photographed frame by frame. Reiniger continued to animate her distinctive silhouette films up into the mid-1970s. She passed away in 1981.


Archive volunteer, Eric Graf was perusing a local library book sale when he spotted an amazing find... a portfolio of prints from Reiniger's landmark film. Published in Berlin in the year the film was released (1926), this group of images shows just how beautiful Reiniger's work was... and how unique. Eric picked up the book for the archive and brought it by today. Thanks, Eric!

Our reader, Michael generously translated the synopsis for us...


Once upon a time there was a wizard who could control all the powers and elements of the world. One day, he made a mighty flying steed out of pure will and thought. Then he took it to the caliph's palace and asked him to let him marry his daughter in exchange for the horse. The girl refused (she thought he was ugly), so the plan was dismissed, but her brother, Achmed, got angry and insulted the wizard. So the latter set up a trap for him: He offered him to have a ride on the horse to see how fast and strong it was. But as soon as he was in the saddle, the horse flew up into the sky and far away. Achmed managed at last to make it land on an island. There he found many beautiful women asking him to be their lover, but he denied as he wanted to find their queen, who - as he had heard - was a woman of exceptional beauty.


Achmed flew over the island on the magic horse and saw a lake shimmering in the night. While he was waiting there, a bird with beautiful feathers landed nearby and changed shape before his eyes: It transformed into Paribanu, the queen of the island, and she wanted to bathe there; around her were many gentle women. Achmed asked her to stay with him, but she was frightened and tried to flee; he, however, held on to her feathers and followed her through the thicket like the hunter follows the deer. He asked her to flee no longer and sat her onto the horse with him. Then they flew over numberless countries, until at last they found a lonely valley, where Achmed made a bed for her under a tree.

But in the meantime, the wizard was not idle, searching for his horse with magic webs, in which he caught the picture of the faraway valley. Then he transformed into a kangaroo, that strange jumping animal of the desert, and in the next moment he was with Achmed and Paribandu. He lured Achmed into a deep canyon, in which a horrible snake lived. While Achmed was fighting that snake, trying to save his life, the wizard kidnapped the girl and escaped with the flying horse.

In China he wanted to sell her as a slave. A very powerful emperor lived there; he had a hump-backed jester, who amused him with his pranks and his chimes. The emperor liked Paribandu and gave many sacks of treasures to the wizards for her. Big was the emperor, and fat. Beautiful he was not. When he approached Paribandu and wanted to make her his lover, she pushed him away, crying: "No, you monster!" That made the emperor angry, so he called his jester and told him: "Do with her what you want! You can kill her, but you may also take her as your wife if you want!" "Ah, marriage! We make marriage!" the hump-backed one called out and danced with joy.

Meanwhile, the wizard was flying back to the island on birds that he had made out of the sacks of gold from the emperor. On the island, Achmed was mourning the loss of his lover, but the wizard gave Achmed to those birds: They tore him away like vultures tear a corpse away. When they found a wasteland where the earth was gaping and spewing out horror, they layed him down shackled under a big rock.


A flaming abyss opened next to Prince Achmed. A hideous woman rose out of it and stepped towards him. Was she going to kill him? He walked up to her and told her who had brought him there, and that the great wizard's animals had kidnapped him. When she heard that, she shouted: "He is my enemy, let us fight him together!" She called the monsters that served her, for she was very powerful, as powerful as the wizard. She ordered them to dive into the core of the earth and fetch weapons with which they could fight the wizard. Now she was friendly to Achmed, took him by the hand and freed him. Look how they soared through magic might, walking through the air with ease, as if they were walking on level ground. The prince shouted: "O look, down there is Paribanu, dressed for a celebration. Oh, she is going to be married with that hunch-backed jester! Let's go down there quickly and save her!"

Down they swooped like birds of prey, grabbing that noble girl. How they lay in each other's arms, Paribanu and Achmed!
But listen! The beating of wings, what does it mean? New dangers! Hosts of black creatures, horrible animals with flapping wings! "O Paribanu!" "These are the spirits of Wak-Wak, my home country. They will not tolerate my staying away from home, they will take me with them! O, the horror!" So the demons took to the air with their prey, and again Prince Achmed stood there alone, separated from his lover. He was furious, and in his anger he forced one of the birds to serve him. Racing after Paribanu, he saw the magic island from far away. The gate of Wak-Wak, and next to it endlessly high mountains. He flew into the gate, and through it.

Then, suddenly, the gates closed, and a voice told the Prince that he was not allowed to enter. "Have you heard of Aladin and his lamp," the voice said, "only that lamp can be your salvation!" Achmed stopped short, trying to recall what he knw about that name: Aladdin! Aladdin!

What monster is this? Many-armed, abominable! Big as a mountain! And look, there is a man in its claws! The prince took his magic weapons to kill it. He shot arrow after arrow, until it dropped dead. He asked the man who he was. It was Aladin, the man he was looking for! He told Achmed his story: "I used to live a quiet life in the caliph's city. While I was working in my workshop one day, a stranger of noble appearance came in and asked me to follow him to a place where immense treasures could be found. He lead me to a cave and bade me descend to the depths of the earth. There, between shiny stones, I found the marvelous lamp. "Give it to me, scoundrel!" the stranger shouted; he was waiting at the cave's entrance. When I refused, he left me behind in darkness and desparation. But I, lighting the lamp, became the master of its spirits. They helped me escape. They served me and did whatever I ordered them to do. I gave them the order to build a palace, more beautiful than any palace I had seen before. And before the sun set, they had accomplished that feat. I went to the caliph's daughter and led her home with me as my wife. But in the evening, everything had disappeared - she, the lover, as well as the incredible palace and, with it, the lamp.

The stranger had done that, but who was he? The great wizard!


"So I got up and fled the caliph's wrath. Travelling over the sea in a tiny boat, i got into a storm. I was whirled around, I was almost smashed against rocks, then I was thrown on the coast. I saw a tree with fruit that could help me recover. But as I reached out for it, the tree rose to the height of a mountain and threw off branches and leaves: It was a monster! That was when you found me, Prince Achmed, and when you saved me!"

When Aladdin had finished his story, the witch appeared and told them that Paribanu was in danger. She said that the spirits of Wak-Wak were revolting against her and only Aladin's lamp could save her. "So you must fight the wizard!" both Aladdin and Achmed begged her, "wrench the lamp from his hands and kill him, the villain!" Already the witch got up and wove magic circles in order to catch the wizard. Not before long he was with them, angry and raging.

Now began a fight like the earth has never seen one, never before and never after it. In a lion's shape, the wizard jumped at the witch in order to pin her on the ground, but she turned into a snake. He, however, took the shape of a poisonous scorpion, which she countered by changing into a rooster. Many shapes they turned into, but neither of them was stronger than the other. Until at last, the witch tore the fire down from the skies, engulfing the wizard in flames. He, too, had power over the flames, and threw many a fire towards her, but finally, finally he got weak and burned. The villainous enemy was destroyed! Now the lamp belonged to them.

Victory, victory! Now they had to hurry to Paribanu's rescue. Numberless were the demons that attacked them. But numberless were also the good spirits that came streaming out of Aladdin's lamp to fight them. And so the black power of the demons was broken forever that day, they fled desperately to the recesses of the earth. They were free now, all of them: Paribanu and Achmed, Dinarsade and Aladdin!

Once more they summoned the lamp's spirits and bade them carry them to the palace they had built in one night and that the wizard had whisked away from the ground. Happily the spirits obliged. Look what made them so glad, while it was flying through the air, light as a cloud, but still artfully created, with numberless galleries and stairs and proud towers. In front of them the house landed like an animal that was meant to carry their burden. They entered the palace, and it flew up again to bring them back to the caliph's city. There, they were greeted with measureless joy. How long they had been away, and what adventures their eyes had seen!

But the caliph embraced them all as his children, Paribanu the beautiful, who was now the wife of Achmed, the noble son, and Aladdin, his lovely daughter Dinarsade's husband. The caliph lifted his hands and blessed them all.

THE PLATES




1. Achmed on the magic horse


2. At the caliph's court


3. The magic horse takes Achmed into the air with it...


4. ...so the wizard is taken prisoner


5. Achmed with Paribanu's servants


6. Paribanu flying to the forest lake in her feathery costume


7. Her nightly bath


8. Achmed following Paribanu


9. The lovers in the mountains


10. Achmed and Paribanu


11. Achmed fighting with the snake in the canyon


12. The emperor of China's jester playing the chimes


13. Paribanu is sold to the emperor


14. The emperor pressing Paribanu


15. The wizard turns the sacks of gold into birds


16. The hunchback plays the flute for Paribanu


17. Achmed with the witch


18. Paribanu in her wedding attire


19. The wedding procession


20. Achmed shooting the monster


21. The monster threatening Aladdin


22. Aladdin tells Achmed his story


23. The wizard calls on Aladdin in his workshop


24. The wizard leads Aladdin past the caliph's palace


25. Dinarsade, the caliph's daughter, playing chess


26. Aladdin discovers the magic lamp in the cave


27. Aladdin greets Dinarsade


28. Aladdin at sea in the storm


29. The battle between the witch and the wizard


30. The wizard and the witch fighting in the shape of a vulture and a rooster


31. Aladdin fights the demons of Wak-Wak with his magic lamp


32. The homecoming
This important film is available at Amazon... Adventures of Prince Achmed DVD

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

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Filmography: Terry-Toons' Temperamental Lion

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 7 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great cartoons to study.

Today, we digitized some great Terrytoons model sheets that Carlo Vinci's family loaned to us...






This one is particularly interesting to me...


...because it's from one of the very best Terrytoons of the time, "The Temperamental Lion". Connie Rasinski created the goofy Bert Lahr lion character as the "King of the Jungle" for the classic cartoon "Doomsday" (1938) as well as "The Nutty Network" (1939). The model was adapted a bit in the late 1940s for "The Lyin' Lion", a film that includes some funny Jim Tyer animation...


...but the character was never better animated than he was by Carlo Vinci in this short... Check out his great scene of the lion singing!







The Temperamental Lion (Terry/1940)
(Quicktime 7 / 14.5 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Many thanks to the Vinci family for sharing their treasures with us!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.18.08
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Filmography: Bambi

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see the bonus reason on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts featuring animation art.

Archive supporter, Mark Kirkland stopped by the other day with his collection of artwork from Bambi. It's a nice overview of the film... color keys, animation drawings, model sheets. Many thanks for sharing these with us, Mark!







Bambi's Father
Animation Drawing by Milt Kahl


Bambi's Mother
Animation Drawing by Frank Thomas


Model Sheet by Marc Davis



Character Design by Marc Davis


The wonderful thing about our digital archive is that it allows collectors to share their treasures with the world. If you have artwork you would like to loan us to be digitized, please stop by for a visit.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive

11.03.08
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Happy Halloween! Three More Tricky Treats

Weird Creepy Awful Spooky Ghastly Comics (1953)


Swing, You Sinners (1930)


Sci Fi and Horror Mexican Lobby Cards
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Happy Halloween! Dulac's Poe

This post is just the tip of the iceberg... see reason number 6 on our The Top Ten Reasons To Support The A-HAA for links to more great posts about golden age illustration.


The Raven
In the golden age of book illustration, there were two artists who led the field... Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Both of these artists were prolific, but of the two, Dulac was the most stylistically versatile. Today, we digitized one of Dulac's most unique books, The Poetical Works of Edgar Allen Poe (1912).

Dulac took full advantage of the printing technology of his day to create images full of deep shadow, inviting the viewer to peer into the details in the darkness. Note for instance the figure in The Raven. His body falls into the shadow across the chair and rug, defined only by the cool shadowy colors of his trousers against the warm ones of the background. Dulac's images perfectly capture Poe's dark, melancholy moods, as well as the cosmic, dreamlike situations of poems like Israfel. Light is used to great effect with eerie, otherworldly uplighting in To One In Paradise, cool moonlight through an open window in The Sleeper, and a pinpoint light source in To Helen.

One of the genres of storytelling that has been rarely employed in animation is gothic horror. Looking at these images, it's clear that animation would be capable of creating a dark, sinister world even more vivid than could be ever be created in live action.




The Bells


The Bells


To One In Paradise


Lenore


To Helen


The Haunted Palace


The Sleeper


Eldorado


The Conqueror Worm


To The R